Episode 7: Time for After
Was anyone else completely unprepared for a super Eugene heavy episode?
Rick is still being held captive by Jadis and her trash people. She uses his camera to take some pics so she can sculpt him “after.” Yikes, after what, exactly? He goes back into the storage container for now. More on him later.
Eugene confronts Dwight about being the mole, but says he won’t turn him in. The mullet-man also gives us a great an acronym for Alexandria, Hilltop, and the Kingdom. That is, AHK. I will totally be using that now. Eugene is kinda drinking The Savior Kool aide these days. The Sanctuary is in bad shape. Now surrounded by the undead and AHK snipers, they may only last two days tops with their supplies.
Further adding to Eugene’s stress, he’s confronted by one of Negan’s wives. He’s supposed to fix her boom box in exchange or booze. The wife isn’t surprised he needs liquor to help him sleep. She knows he has a guilty conscience for not helping her and the other wives kill Negan when they could have.
Father Gabriel is pretty much on death’s door. It turns out he’s badly infected and they have no medicine. Gabe basically preaches to Eugene to have faith and do the right thing. Despite more painfully obvious feelings of guilt, Eugene still refuses to do betray Negan. After all, Eugene has always been a selfish coward. He’s now been approached by three different characters to right his wrongs.
Negan and Eugene have a nice little chat wherein Negan plays the other man like a damn fiddle. There’s all this mumbo jumbo about respect, and Eugene being the man to figure their way out of this mess. It’s made clear to us as the audience that he’s not exactly sincere. But, Eugene does come up with a plan that’s promptly thwarted by Dwight. Our acid-faced friend can’t bring himself to kill him, and again, Eugene has a chance to rat out to Negan and doesn’t.
In case there is any confusion, Eugene is melting the hell down. The man is drinking, crying, and having some huge crisis of faith here. Matters are not helped when the next couple of scenes go down.
Good news for me! Morgan didn’t go far away at all! He’s standing guard as one of the AHK snipers. He sees Daryl, Tara, Michonne, and Rosita arrive. The snipers will help carry out the Negan assassination attempt. Rosita and Michonne WISELY opt out. They have faith in what Rick and the rest of them have already plotted. Daryl and Tara are taking a self-serving risk, and I DO NOT foresee this ending well, people. Well, D&T crash a huge truck into the Sanctuary allowing in a ton of walkers and themselves. Chaos ensues inside. Everyone’s fate, for now, is unknown.
Back to Rick. Silly Rick is clad only in his boxers and drug out of the storage container once more. Jadis and crew bring out one of their freaky as hell blinded, armored walker slaves. However, the creature and his captors are no match for Rick Grimes! He not only gains the upper hand, but then manages to strike a deal with Jadis for their help. The motley crew take off for Negan’s house. Rick gets one look at the truck crashed into the building and makes the best silent, “oh shit” face I’ve seen in a while on this show.
What the bloody blazes will happen next week in the mid-season finale? I’m highly doubtful that D&T will be successful. And where are the snipers? Did they go in too? Why can’t Rick reach them on the radios? Is Eugene going to do what’s right and stand up for once? Naw, probably not.
